Further analyzing this photograph, I see that the crew's left hand is grasping the leeward, port shroud. His right hand is pressing against the cross bar in an attempt to keep himself from swinging forward.

He is situated where if his body, legs strike the water, he would have very little leverage against swinging aft. His grip on the shroud is literally pivotal. Providing his trap wire is hoisted high enough and that he maintains is distance from the shroud, his body should be able to clear the deck, even though he may be dragging in the water if the boat was lifting.

Like a pirouetting figure skater draws in her arms to accelerate her spin, he can pull in his knees to accelerate his spin in toward the deck. With knees in his chest, left hand pivoting on the shroud, and right hand reaching aloft for the trap handle, he should swing right in to the rear of the tramp.

If he allows his shroud hand to slide up the shroud and he releases his grip on the shroud and pulls himself up on the trap wire, all at just the correct time, his momentum might just carry him right on through a complete upward counter-clockwise corkscrew that takes him from feet pointing at 9 o'clock, through 360º in the lateral plane to feet pointing once again at 9 o'clock, while the lifting brings his shoulders from deck level up to boom level on the vertical plane.

That is what I would expect from a professional racer who is seen dangling on a wire, up side down, on the lee side of a catamaran, with his back to the boat and back to the water. Wow, what a precarious posture!

I speculate that this acrobatic trapeze artist just may have a circus trapeze set in his back yard, for practice and training.

GARY (Non-acrobatic trapeze sailor)
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